ieving Sir Nigel had
requested the truce for the purpose. Sir Christopher, too, though pale
and gaunt, and compelled to use the support of a cane in walking, was
observed to look upon his youthful charge with all his former hilarity
of mien, chastened by a kindly tenderness, which seemed indeed that of
the father whom he personated; and Lady Seaton had donned a richer garb
than was her wont, and stood encouragingly beside the bride. About
twenty men-at-arms, their armor and weapons hastily burnished, that no
unseemly soil should mar the peaceful nature of the ceremony by
recalling thoughts of war, were ranged on either side. The church was
lighted, dimly in the nave and aisles, but softly and somewhat with a
holy radiance where the youthful couple knelt, from the large waxen
tapers burning in their silver stands upon the altar.

The Abbot of Scone was at his post, attended by the domestic chaplain of
Kildrummie; there was a strange mixture of admiration and anxiety on the
old man's face, but Agnes saw it not; she saw nothing save him at whose
side she knelt.

Nigel, even in the agitation of mind in which he had quitted Agnes--an
agitation scarcely conquered in hastily informing his sister and her
husband of all that had passed between them, and imploring their
countenance and aid--yet made it his first care strictly to make the
round of the walls, to notice all that might be passing within the
courts, and see that the men-at-arms were at their posts. In consequence
of the truce, for the conclusion of which it still wanted some little
time, there were fewer men on the walls than usual, their commanders
having desired them to take advantage of this brief cessation of
hostilities and seek refreshment and rest. A trumpet was to sound at the
hour of ten, half an hour before the truce concluded, to summon them
again to their posts. The men most acute in penetration, most firm and
steady in purpose, Nigel selected as sentries along the walls; the post
of each being one of the round towers we have mentioned, the remaining
spaces were consequently clear. Night had already fallen, and anxiously
observing the movements on the walls; endeavoring to discover whether
the various little groups of men and women in the ballium meant any
thing more than usual, Sir Nigel did not notice various piles or stacks
of straw and wood which were raised against the wall in many parts where
the shadows lay darkest, and some also against the other